Creating a birthing plan can be valuable for both you and your health-care provider. A birthing plan outlines your personal hopes for your labor experience, and informs your physician or midwife about what you do and do not want during labor and delivery. You have probably talked about these things already, but writing them down for yourself and your practitioner can re-enforce your feelings or bring up new issues.

The festive season is upon us with the inevitable late nights, last-minute rushes, and abundance of holiday treats. This article provides some strategies for maintaining your weight through the holidays. These strategies were developed during a special, eight-week course offered at the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center. We hope these strategies help you meet the many weight-management challenges of the holidays.

The evidence for CoQ10’s benefits in cardiomyopathy relies primarily on open studies. One 6-year open trial of 143 patients with chronic, stable, nonsecondary, nonhypertrophic cardiomyopathy (98% NYHA class III and IV) added 100 mg/day of CoQ10 to the preexisting medical program. The results showed a statistically significant improvement in ejection fraction in 84% of patients. Most patients improved by one or two NYHA classes, and a comparison with patients on conventional therapy alone appeared to show a reduction in mortality. No side effects were noted. Read the rest of this entry »